IBE Focus Footwork Battle, what, where and why?

Alright here’s some more information on what’s about to go down and the story behind this:

I managed to take the first place in IBE Footwork Battle in the Netherlands the last two years in a row plus once in the UK Championship IBE room. Tyrone from IBE organization gave me a call few months ago and told he wants to give my name for the IBE Footwork battle to honor this. Of course I said yes, it’s an honor for me to do this. So here’s what we planned together to make the battle as good as possible.

There was some talk about rules but strict rules sometimes limit too much and take away feeling in battle. SInce IBE Footwork Battle is always huge with over 100 participants from all over the world every year everybody don’t always know 100 % what footwork really is. That’s why we ended up having certain guidelines for the participants.

Guidelines for the IBE Focus Footwork Battle, what it takes to win and why your might get eliminated:

- master your basic steps, styles, flow, directions and FORM

- no freezes, backrocks, dynamics (known for most as powermoves)

- originality is a must

- musicality is a must

- no running moves

Dope footwork is eventually pretty simple. You take away the stuff that doesn’t belong there and just flow. You master your basics and add your own originality on top. A lot of people have only one style of footwork, while a BBOY with ill footwork aims to master all the styles: the basic rotational style, extended style footwork, kneesweep/prezel style, kneerock style, elbow rock style etc. Even threading style can be regarded as footworkstyle to me if done in a footwork context. Mastering directions means switching ways, going from side to side, front to back, up to down and so on. If you’re only going around in circles that doesn’t necessarily get you too far. By judging form we mean the shape of your footwork, does it look fresh or not. Already your front stance tells a lot about your footwork, it defines how everything else looks. Form is the most important of these guidelines on judging a footwork battle.

No freezes and backrocks is pretty self explanatory but we’ve seen people throw airfreezes in a footwork battle so it had to be put up there. Dynamics is up there because I actually consider a lot of my footwork steps powermoves. So saying no powermovers would be too limiting, a dope bboy IS a powermove!

So there you have it! Good luck for everybody entering, the list is already full. I can’t wait for this weekend, will be off the hook!